Popular food delivery services, Zomato and Swiggy have been pulled to the court by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The regulator has filed 22 adjudication cases for listing restaurants functioning without licenses. According to an update by the Indian Express, the hearing for these cases will begin this month itself. The FDA has given a ‘stop business’ notice to 113 restaurants in October and yet the delivery from them through these two delivery services continued.

Food Delivery Under Question

“The hearing in these cases will commence soon. These outlets were found working without licence and the food portals were delivering their food to consumers without ensuring that the outlets had licence to cook,” Shailesh Aadhav, joint commissioner (food), Mumbai told the Indian Express. The 113 outlets in question are the ones that were inspected amongst 347 in October by the FDA. These were asked to stop business as they were violating the norms set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

However, the FDA found that these restaurants were still on the list of Swiggy and Zomato and that the food was being delivered through these portals. “Both were found delivering food from unlicensed outlets. They de-listed several outlets following our notice,” Aadhav told the publication. “In some cases, the outlets had not produced a licence on the day of inspection and later submitted them to us,” Mangesh Mane, Assistant Commissioner (food) told the Indian Express.